The Golden State Warriors could be resting, but instead they’re preying on teams with current needs, like the Memphis Grizzlies. They beat the team that can probably no longer finish second in the West 111-107, mostly thanks to another huge Thompson offensive outburst.

Thompson scored 42 points, 37 of them coming in the first half. He has already had a 37-point quarter this season against the Sacramento Kings. This time he settled for 26 points in the second quarter as the center of his impressive performance. It didn’t stop the Warriors from almost blowing a huge lead to the Grizzlies backups in an astonishing fourth quarter.

The Warriors led by as much as 32 points in the third but gave up 41 points in the fourth as Jordan Adams, Russ Smith and JaMychal Green of all players came out of nowhere to push the Grizzlies towards what would have been an epic comeback. It wasn’t that bad to play backups because the Grizzlies are playing with injured players, something that’s not so wise just before the playoffs.

Marc Gasol played (6 points in 21 minutes) despite his ankle. Jeff Green played (4 points in 22 minutes) despite his back issues. Mike Conley and Tony Allen have sprains that kept them out of the game, which explains why the Grizzlies looked so awful for so long during this game, leading to them losing the season series 2-1 with the Warriors.

After leading their division for so long and holding on to the number two spot for most of the Season, falling to 54-27, at the moment, means Memphis are sixth in the West. There are still quite a lot of possible combination for the playoff seeding in the West, but it just might turn out that they won’t have home court advantage in the first round which would have been quite shocking going back a week or two.

The Warriors in the meantime are playing like the playoffs have already begun. They’re not resting players, and seem to be focused on playing as good as possible heading into the postseason. They have a 38-2 home record this season which means that their home court advantage throughout the playoffs is going to be close to impossible to wrestle away from them.